Global traffic strong in February, says IATA
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reports global traffic is up 6.2% over February of 2014. This is considerably higher than January’s year-on-year increase of 4.5%. The IATA suggests that February’s number was positively impacted by the Lunar New Year holiday, which occurred in February this year and January in 2014.
While Lunar New Year travel undoubtedly contributed to increased traffic growth in February, IATA’s Director General and CEO Tony Tyler states: “It is also clear that solid demand for connectivity is offsetting economic weakness in some regions including the Eurozone.”
Highlights of February’s statistics
|
Feb 2015 vs. Feb 2014 |
RPK Growth |
ASK Growth |
PLF |
|
International |
6.8% |
5.7% |
77.4% |
|
Domestic |
5.3% |
5.3% |
80.4% |
|
Total Market |
6.2% |
5.6% |
78.5% |
|
YTD 2015 vs. YTD 2014 |
RPK Growth |
ASK Growth |
PLF |
|
International |
5.9% |
5.7% |
77.7% |
|
Domestic |
4.4% |
4.6% |
78.9% |
|
Total Market |
5.3% |
5.3% |
78.1% |
International passenger demand rose 6.8% in February 2015 over February 2014. The only region that did not have growth reported by its airlines was Africa.
Unsurprisingly given the holiday, Asia-Pacific carriers saw the greatest increase in international travel, at 10.4% over the same month last year. Capacity rose 8.2% and load factor increased 1.6 percentage points to 78.2%.
In the Middle East, demand rose 8.7% in February over February 2014. Capacity shot up 11.0%, which caused the load factor to decrease 1.6 percentage points to 77.2%.
Latin American airlines jumped 7.4% in traffic over last February. Capacity increased 6.5% and load factor rose marginally to 79.7%, the highest in the world.
European airlines report an increase of 4.8% YOY. Capacity increased 3.4% and load factor rose 1.1 percentage points to 78.3%.
North American airlines saw a 3.5% increase over one year earlier. Capacity rose 2.3% and load factor was up 0.9 percentage points over February 2014.
Africa was the only region to see a decrease in international traffic. Carriers in that region saw a 2.0% drop YOY. ASKs dropped 1.7%, resulting in the lowest load factor of any region at 63.5%. The IATA suggests this was likely caused by adverse economic developments, including a severe drop in the price of oil. Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy and it relies heavily on this commodity
